


A Remote Reflection

by InNeedOfInspiration



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-16 03:17:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14803352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InNeedOfInspiration/pseuds/InNeedOfInspiration
Summary: It was a risky plan but it still was the best plan they got. The only way to stop Thanos and undo what he had done was to prevent his ascension by getting one of the Infinity Stones back in time. And the only gem whose exact location they knew for a fact and which still remained the most accessible of all was the Space Stone at the time it was in HYDRA's hands during the Second World War.Time travel fic set post-Infinity War.Warning: contains multiple Steves'





	A Remote Reflection

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mhysamerica](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mhysamerica/gifts).



> Many thanks to @MhysAMERICA for making me write this fic and helping me to find the right title — hope you like it!

It was a risky plan but it still was the best plan they got. Hank Pym along with Banner had figured out a way to travel through time via the quantum realm. After long discussions debating how far in time they should go to be able to stop Thanos, it became evident that most reliable solution was to retrieve at least one of the Infinity stones to slow the Titan down in his schemes. And the only gem whose exact location they knew for a fact and which still remained the most accessible of all was the Space Stone at the time it was in HYDRA's hands during the Second World War.

One of them had been there before and would be able to get to it: Steve.

"I'm coming with you," he heard the same soothing, familiar voice that had been accompanying those past two years, and even longer.

He looked at her sternly as she stood tall with her arms crossed, showing she wouldn't take no for an answer. He knew her well enough not to try to convince her otherwise. Natasha was a tough partner to have — loyal and devoted through and through. It hit him that she had been present at all the most critical moments of his (second) life. 

After gearing up, they both stood in the lab, waiting for the travelling device to be activated.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

She was gazing right ahead. "Let's do this," she said coolly after clearing her throat.

One moment later, they were sent back in time. When they stepped out of the Quantum Realm, they were standing in a military in the middle of the night.

He glanced at her to check Natasha was alright before concentrating on the mission again. He flipped and quickly headed towards the one cabin where he knew he would find what he had come for. The lights were still on he could see as he approached the place. He motioned to Natasha and with a silent nod, quickly went around to the other side.

He looked all around him before giving her the nod to go inside. She reached for the handle and stepped inside without a single sound.

It took several seconds for the person inside, leaning on a table and studying maps, to notice incoming presence. When he eventually turned around, he froze dumbfoundedly at the unexpected sight.

Natasha looked him up and down with a smirk.

"Hello, Steve"

He frowned deeply. "Who are you?", he asked, sounding fairly cautious, then checked out her strange looking uniform — the kind he had never seen before.

He noticed when she glanced over his shoulder and he flipped around to face the second visitor. All his muscles tensed when he recognized the face of her accomplice with his own.

Steve looked at him with restrained astonishment. Even if the plan had been to seek the 1940s version of himself and convince him to aid them in retrieving the Stone, Steve couldn't help but gulp at the sight of the man he was once, standing in his neat uniform, naive and unaware. A remote reflection on the mirror, who had become someone that he used to know.

The Steve standing in front of him jumped back, startled and frightened to the core he could see, and bounced to get his shield. He held it up in front of him and put his feet apart, ready to attack.

"Who are you?" he exclaimed.

Cap slowly held his hand out. "I am you," he answered calmly. "I come from another time and I am here because I need your help."

Steven shook his hand. "That's....," he shook his head, "that's impossible. You're lying."

"I know how this looks and I probably wouldn't believe me either if I were in your shoes, but I'm telling you the truth."

Natasha walked over to him and he gave her a reassuring nod. She briefly threw a glance at the other Steve then went outside to survey the perimeter.

Cap slightly rolled his sleeve and showed a scar, hardly visible unless pointed to. Steve stared at it in utter confusion. "You got this when you were twelve," Cap began. "After the doctors had just told you that you would never be like the other boys and that you would have to go easy on yourself. You went for a walk and you saw your reflection in a window. You looked so skinny, so pale, blood hardly coming up to your cheeks, and that's when you knew the doctors were right — that no matter how hard you would try —, you could never keep up and be like everyone else."

He paused and watched as his younger self began to lower his guard. He smiled sadly at their common memory. "You punched that window and cut your arm. When you got home, you told mom you fell. You never told anyone the truth. Not even Bucky." His throat tightened as he said his best friend's name, and the moment James fell into dust played again in his head.

He watched the same pain and loss reflect in his alter ego's eyes albeit his memory was different and played their Bucky falling off the HYDRA train.

He lowered his shield completely and looked at Cap with whole new appreciation. "How is it possible?" he asked.

"It's complicated," he began and got interrupted by a soldier bursting in the cabin with his rifle.

"Captain, are you alright?" the soldier shouted and a strong arm clasped around his throat from behind. Steve watched as he fell unconscious and found the blond woman from before standing.

"We can't stay here much longer," she said to her partner. "Have you filled him in?"

"We're here for the Tesseract," Cap said, turning to Steve. "It is vital that we find it — many people's lives depend on it. I know you have a mission scheduled for tomorrow to stop Red Skull before he make use of the Tesseract. We'll need your help to retrieve it, then we'll go back to where we come from."

"I can ask the Colonel to give us more men. Peggy could help too," Steve said.

Cap shook his head. "The fewer people know about us and our mission, the safer it is for the future. We can't alter it further than we already are. It's just the three of us."

"I saw a vehicle just outside the camp," Natasha said and Steve looked at her closely. "We can take it without getting too much attention."

Cap nodded, gathered and rolled together the maps and plans on the desk then, turning to Steve, said: "This is Agent Romanoff."

"Ma'am," Steve said bashfully.

"Hi," she answered very casually. Cap made his way towards the door. "Don't mind him, he's being awkward. You can call me Nat."

She looked at him closely. "Nice haircut," she remarked with a faint smirk.

"Hmm thanks," he answered and she was standing by Cap's side a moment later.

The three of them made their way to the Jeep and drove off.

It was quiet for some time and most of the awkwardness emanated from Steve, who was watching silently the natural proximity between his other self and agent Romanoff without never having to speak. He had noticed how a simple nod or glance were enough to communicate.

"You probably have questions," Cap eventually said as he kept his hands on the wheel and looked at him using the rear-view mirror. "We'll try our best to answer some of them."

"What do you need the Tesseract for?" Steve asked, getting straight to the point (and Cap expected nothing less).

"There is a Stone inside that Tesseract, extremely powerful. Someone bad will hold it in the future and make terrible use of it. We're here to get it first and destroy it before he can have it."

"When is that future exactly?" he asked. He noticed the glimpse agent Romanoff and Cap gave each other.

"21st Century," Cap answered. "And no, I can't tell you how you'll get there."

Steve bit his lip. "No shield?" he ventured.

"Long story but things got complicated along the way," Cap said.

"And...the beard?" Steve asked, touching his own chin.

"It's quicker and more practical in the current situation."

"That's his code for secretly likes it," Agent Romanoff chimed in next to him.

Cap threw a glance at her and she responded with a smug smile. "I like it too," she added nonchalantly.

"You never told me before."

"I'm telling you now," she said with a playful smirk.

They arrived at the HYDRA base a few hours later, abandoned the car far away enough to cover their tracks and walked into the woods. They eventually stopped when the base was within sight. They stooped behind tree trunks and surveyed the area and all the HYDRA agents patrolling.

"Peggy will come with the troops as soon as she'll notice my absence," Steve said.

"I'm counting on it," Cap replied. "It's the distraction we'll need for our exit."

"So this is it? We go inside, you get the Tesseract and I stop Red Skull."

Cap nodded quietly.

Steve eyed Natasha attentively. "What is the future like?" he asked, trying to make conversation.

She shrugged. "Kind of tame. Single currency, flying cars, people don't eat food anymore. It's gonna be quite a shock for you at first, though."

"Nat," Cap called. "Leave him alone."

"Come on Steve, I get to meet your younger self and I'm not allowed to toy with him a bit."

Natasha flashed Steve her most devilish smile. "I'll be your favorite in the future."

Cap came between them. "Sounds like latent brainwashing to me," he told her.

"Some Soviet habits die hard."

She smiled at Steve then stood up.

Half an hour went by.

"I'm gonna go check the surroundings," Steve said before moving away.

Natasa came to fill his spot. She watched as he stepped back inside the woods, then she stared across to the base again.

"Are you sure it's what you really want?" she asked Cap, wistful and unsure. "This is the only the chance you'll ever get at fixing things. You could tell him what really happens next and make sure you stay where you're supposed to be."

She perfectly measured the impact of her words (and they were harder to voice than what she had thought). She knew that Steve staying in the current time meant no more Captain America in hers. She knew that would mean losing her teammate and her friend, but she had learned from him not to be selfish. What she wanted didn't weigh much on the balance compared to what was best for him. She would pay the steepest price of his absence a thousand times over if the reward for it was that the assurance he would finally get a chance at happiness. She would do it...for him.

"I'm where I'm supposed to be," he answered sternly, eager to put an end to that conversation.

"Okay," she gave in. "But he has the right to know. Maybe you should give him that. At least."

When Steve returned, the final tactics were established as they looked at the plans collected earlier. At dawn, Cap and Nat would sneak in using the tunnels whilst Steve would be the diversion on the ground.

Natasha was "persuaded" to go get some sleep before the beginning of the mission and Cap threw glances in her direction now and then. When it wasn't him, it was Steve.

She was, in truth, the most intriguing woman he had ever met. From the moment she had stepped into his cabin, he had been awestruck by the unadulterated confidence and fierceness she exuded. She walked and moved like a feline; her smirk could entice any prey into her web, and she showed the skills of a formidable opponent. And her beauty, it was brazen and unapologetic as her character. And any man would let himself be damned to keep gazing at it.

Soon, Steve found himself envying Cap.

If he had never met a woman as strong as Peggy before, he had never met a woman as mysterious as Natasha. She was alluring in every possible way and he felt like a magnet perilously attracted to her. His other self had to feel the same way too, he was sure.

"So are you...I mean are we," he trailed off, "...with her?"

Cap arched an eyebrow. His eyes wandered on Nat's sleeping figure. He looked back at Steve and smiled faintly.

"We missed our window," he commented, sort of wistful.

Steve furrowed his brows, internally disappointed with the answer.

"Do you love her?" he wanted to ask but didn't as he felt it was a question too personal to ask 5ironically). Somehow, he already had the answer. Their complicity, Cap's instinctive urge to always check she was safe, and his very own attraction which he didn't doubt had increased and heightened over the years for his alter ego, were many reasons to conclude the answer was positive.

He began to wonder what his other self had meant with the missed window? Had something happened between them? Were they broken up? Had another man stepped in between them?

"She seems great."

"She is," Cap answered. "She's the best partner I could have. And the most intriguing woman I've ever met...but you know what I mean already, don't you?"

Cap eyed him with a subtle amused smile and Steve cleared his throat in response.

"If I can give you some advice. Don't make my mistakes — don't wait too long," Cap spoke again, shaking his head. "Take it from me: it's never too early."

Steve looked quizzically at him, unsure of what his alter ego meant.

"I think I've been waiting too long with Peggy," he said quietly.

"You have," Cap answered matter-of-factly.

They looked at each other and smiled.

"You know," he continued after a pause. "I haven't been totally honest with you. Earlier you asked why I had wound up in the future and I didn't answer. I think you deserve to know."

Cap looked at him closely. "Something will happen to you and it won't be easy. Today's mission is going to have consequences. It'll change everything for you. I made a choice the day it happened to me and I thought it would be easier for you if you didn't have to face it until it actually happens, just like I did. But in retrospect, I think I would have wanted to be better prepared for it. If you go after Schmidt, you're never coming back. It was the end of my journey here and it will the end of yours. But it's the right choice."

Steve let the words sink in. It was one thing to go on a mission without knowing if you would make it out safely and it was another to go on a mission knowing you wouldn't.

"Aren't you afraid you might have changed the future —your future— by telling me this? That I may not go after Schmidt?" he asked.

Cap had a resigned, but not sorrowful, smile. "I'm you, remember? We both know you've already made your choice. That's who we are."

This face-to-face internal dialogue was getting more and more unsettling. Steve also couldn't help suffering from an imbalance face to a version of himself who was clearly ten steps ahead of him on every single matter.

* * *

The mission began a couple of hours later, just before the first rays of the sun could pierce through the clouds. It worked as planned: Steve created the diversion whilst Cap and Natasha sneaked into the tunnels knowing the way to the explosive device which sheltered the Space Stone. They accessed the room and neutralized the agents that were guarding the Tesseract.

Some strong shooting echoed a few corridors away. Natasha frowned.

"He needs our help. He can't take all those soldiers on his own."

Cap shook his head. "He'll manage. The priority is the Tesseract," he answered impassively as he made his way to the device to extract the wanted object."

Natasha headed the opposite way towards the metal door. "You may not care about what can happen to you, but I do."

She opened the door and stepped outside.

Steve was hiding behind his shield, the tinkling of bullets resonating over the vibranium. He then jolted it at the enemies, knocking down two, then shot the others with a firearm nearby. He caught his shield and stood in the middle of the seemingly quiet corridor. He heard heavy shootings and bombing coming from outside the base indicating that back-up had arrived. There were only a few minutes left before Colonel Phillips, Peggy, and their men would enter.

Suddenly a soldier shouted in German followed by two others. Steve did not have time to react that a stealthy dark figure pounced from the corner. She stabbed one with a knife, prepped herself on the wall to gain momentum and leaped on the second one, clasped her thighs around his neck and snapped it, before immediately capturing with one great spring the third soldier into her lethal grasp. She landed on the floor in a crouching position from her padded descent.

Natasha looked up at him with a grim smirk playing on her lips. The easiness with which she had taken down the three soldiers made her incontestably the most dangerous predator and deadliest weapon in the facility.

"Thanks," he spoke collectedly, trying to keep his wonderment concealed.

She rose up and smiled at him, switching off her other persona. Running steps echoed in the hall and Natasha slinked away round the opposite corner without a sound.

"Steve!" a female voice called. He took his eyes off of the corner Natasha had just disappeared into and turned around. Peggy was standing before him with a mix of alarmed and confused expression. "Are you alright? What happened? And why did you leave the camp in the middle of the night?"

"I'm fine —"

New shootings rang out, and reaching for her hand, both escaped.

After a few minutes, nearly all of the HYDRA soldiers had been stopped and Steve couldn't help but worry about his two clandestine teammates and what had happened to them.

The Colonel's troops scattered to look for any hidden enemies.

He suddenly caught a glimpse of two silhouettes standing behind a stack of crates who deliberately let their presence be known to him only. He furtively went to meet them.

Cap pointed to a bag he was holding with a swift glance. "We have the Tesseract." Steve knew it was their cue. He nodded. "Thank you for your help."

Natasha pressed a hand on his forearm. "I'm glad I got to meet you."

"STEVE!" Peggy shouted from across the room. "Schmidt is about to leave on his plane with the weapon."

His heart pounded hard in his chest.

"Wasn't the device deactivated when you extracted the Tesseract?" he asked Cap.

"It was the source of power but the device is still fully loaded."

"STEVE!" Peggy desperately called again.

He looked behind him and saw a plane across that he could use to chase the Valkyrie.

He took a deep breath in, gathering his thoughts and elaborating a last minute plan.

"I need to go after him," he said staring at Cap, and all of three of them fully measured the consequences (and outcomes) of his decision.

"I know," Cap answered, poised and calm about the stance.

Natasha looked at him with a warmhearted expression and a slight condoling look. She did not seem to say farewell — only goodbye. Cap had a similar sympathetic expression as he relived from an external point of view an event which once was his.

"Good luck with your mission. I hope it works," Steve said to them before running off to Peggy. Colonel Phillips met them with his car and both jumped in it to chase Red Skull's plane.

Briefly looking far ahead at the stack of crates, he caught sight of a blinding light burst off and both Cap and Natasha vanished.

He turned to face his upcoming fight and the ineluctable consequences that would come along with it.

Fear had gone and only his determination to do right thing prevailed. He realized Cap was right. He had already made his choice before this moment had even come. He was only grateful he had been given a chance to get a glimpse of his next journey, and filled with the resolute purpose not to repeat his predecessor's mistakes.

Maybe this second time around, he could dare be bold for the two of them.


End file.
